A half day round-table discussion on "GST: Perspective and Prospects" was organized at FORE School of Management, New Delhi. India has become the 4th country after Canada, Brazil and Malaysia to adopt the dual structure of GST at the state and central level which echoes from the basic doctrines of cooperative federalism enshrined in our constitution.

In
his inaugural address, Dr Jitendra Das, Director, FORE School of
Management, spoke about the importance of this landmark reform in
indirect tax regime in independent India and how it is relevant for
management students and practitioners alike to be abreast with the
nuances of this new tax landscape that could streamline the Indian
economy going forward.

In
Focus

Mr
Chandan Goyal (Chartered Accountant and CEO; Blue Consulting Pvt Ltd,
Noida) shared his views on the various components of GST-GST Council
(comprising State and Central Government and whose Chairman is Union
Minister Finance), GSTN (GST network, non-profit, public private
partnership company which manages the front-end IT infrastructure and
services of the GST portal), Statutes providing it statutory backing
(Central GST Act, State GST Act, UT GST Act which are further
supported by Rules), GST Siddha Provider, or GSP and Application
Service Providers or ASP (support to taxpayers in the IT ecosystem
for GST by providing application interface).

Prof
Kavitha Rao from National Institute of Public Finance and Policy,
shared how GST would now help move from a cascading regime of
taxes-Customs, Excise, Service, VAT etc. to a more robust tax
structure unifying the whole of India into one market thereby
promoting efficiency of scale and effective business decision making.

Dr
Amit Bagga, practicing Chartered Accountant, touched upon the reverse
charge mechanism of GST where the recipient of the goods (who is
registered under GST) and/or services is liable to pay tax instead of
the supplier (who is not registered under GST). He emphasised that
biggest beneficiary of the GST reform will be government which will
net huge tax revenues as besides the increase in tax collections
under a simplified GST regime there might be a positive spillover to
direct tax collections.

Mr
Kapil Sharma, partner, Lakshmikumaran and Sridharan Attorneys, talked
about the input tax credits (reducing the tax liability if one has
already paid on inputs) in this new tax regime which he termed as
"game-changer" for independent India. He emphasised that input
credits being claimed shall be matched and validated and hence
compliance will increase and leakages to be plugged which will
subsequently making the tax net wide. He mentioned that GST could
lead to better supply chain management and vendor management.

Mr
Vipin Kumar Khatri, GST Faculty with ICAI, opined that GST is a
consumption based tax and consists of 4 pillars – Input Tax Credits
(flowing seamlessly through the supply chain), Integrated GST
(mechanism to transfer between states in interstate trade),
uniformity in tax system (one nation-one tax which would lead to
increase in ease of doing business) and supply (includes sales,
transfers, barter, exchange).

The
roundtable discussion was moderated by Prof Vinay Dutta, FORE School
of Management, who concurred that although GST is not that simple tax
system but it is a tryst with destiny that independent India is
making by simplifying and rationalising the indirect tax regime and
will in all accounts hopefully, shall be hailed as a landmark in the
economic history of India.

The
floor was open for questions. The panelists patiently responded to
the queries ranging from effect of GST on individual food bill to the
GST differential rate of levy and calibration, rushing of GST
implementation is a motive to boost short term revenue or otherwise,
anti-profiteering clause of GST, inflationary effects of GST much to
the satisfaction of faculties and students. The Vote of Thanks was
proposed by Prof Vandana Gupta, Area Chair, Finance & Accounting,
FORE School of Management.